March 26, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 26.03.2023, 13:50

EU. Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis is receiving the president of the European Council
Charles Michel on Monday in Bucharest. According to the Romanian president’s
office, the two officials are expected to have one-on-one and official talks,
after which they will hold a joint press conference. The trip by the EU
official comes two days after a meeting of EU heads of state and government in
Brussels which mainly focused on the situation in Ukraine.

Earth Hour. Millions of people, institutions and businesses turned the
lights off for one hour on Saturday evening for the biggest celebration of
Earth Hour to date. The Romanian environment ministry warned in a statement that
biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented pace and the world’s economy is
dependent on nature. Earth Hour was first held on 31st March 2007 in
Sydney, when 2 million people and over 2,100 businesses turned off their lights
for one hour. The Romanian environment ministry joined institutions in the over
8,000 cities and 195 countries that celebrated the 17th edition of
Earth Hour this year. To mark this event, all lights both inside and outside
the Parliament Palace in Bucharest were turned off between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm.
Also, around 26,000 people took part in an activity organised by the Cantus
Mundi national programme, in which children from over 250 choirs and
instrumental ensembles from around the country gave public performances with
the lights off in public spaces such as parks, squares and outside public
institutions from around the country.

Summer Time. Romania switched to summer time on Saturday night. Clocks
were moved forward, with 3 am becoming 4 am, making this Sunday the shortest day
of the year. For the duration of the summer time, the difference between
Romania’s official hour and GMT is three hours, instead of two during the
winter. The public railway company said the switch to summer time will not
affect the train timetable. Daylight saving time, which was first adopted in
Romania in 1917, is intended to save energy by ensuring a longer period of
natural light.

Reading. The European Commission is
launching a new initiative led by Commissioner Mariya
Gabriel to encourage reading and help young people in particular
discover European literature and its linguistic and cultural diversity, with
the first edition of the Day of European Authors to be launched on Monday in
Sofia. More than 1,000 schools from across the continent are holding reading
sessions, with 100 European authors taking part in reading aloud events.
Everyone is also invited to share on their social media images of books by
their favourite European writer with the hashtag Read with Europe. In Romania,
among other events, the Central University Library in Bucharest is hosting an
event where readers can meet writers Gabriela
Adameşteanu and Matei Vişniec.

Football. The Romanian
national football side defeated Andorra 2-nil away on Saturday evening in their
first qualifying match for Euro 2024, in Group 1. In other group matches,
Switzerland defeated Belarus 5-nil and Israel drew 1-all against Kosovo.
Romania will be playing their next match against Belarus on 28th
March on the National Arena in Bucharest. The two best-ranked teams in each of
the 10 preliminary groups will qualify directly, while the others will go into
playoffs, with the National League qualifying event to be held in March next
year. (CM)